Today is a sad day for the crew of the SCS Durandal. I am the last surviving member of the crew. We jumped to Mars on a mission to investigate an unfamiliar encrypted distress signal. Now why the hell would anyone encrypt a distress signal?! Regardless, as soon as we jumped to the planet we were greeted with a view of some ancient space station from before the Unifying Wars. Unfortunately for us the distress signal turned out to be a trap! The former crew of the station, Russian Cosmonauts, (what are Russians?) turn to have been infected by some strain of MZV (Martian Zombie Virus), and have turned into, well, zombies.

They were able to teleport onto my ship through some archaic method of teleportation that bypassed our shields. (I didn't even know they have teleportation technology before the Unifying Wars). They quickly swarmed our weapons rooms, First Lt.s Dahl, Johnson put up a brave fight in the Laser Cannon room, but they were overwhelmed by superior numbers. While Squaddies Pim and Chapman were trapped in the Photon Torpedo room, assaulted by both the zombies and fire (How did that derelict space station house so many corpses??). Within 5 minutes of battle, I already lost 4 members of my crew as well as the ability to fight back, I knew I should have stayed in bed.

I quickly divided up my remaining crew into two squads, one to retake each of the weapon rooms. Commanding Squad A was Lt. Commander Knight, I assigned Ensigns Horton and Flowers to her for tactical support, as well as Jr. Lts. Phillips and Armstrong for provide medical assistance. Chief engineer Li'foon offered to join their squad to repair the damages to the Laser Cannon Room.

Commanding Squad B was, of course myself, and with me were Junior Ensigns Huff and Oritz, with medical support provided by Princess Saark and Jr. Lt. Burton, with our other Chief Engineer Allison. We also had a rookie, who just joined the crew before we took this mission, Lawrence; who as a favor to his father, I assigned to the Bridge (so I can keep an eye on him).
We took the opportunity that the zombies were occupied with trashing the armory and the healing room, so sneak past them to the weapons wing of the ship.

Everything looked clear until we reached the Photon Torpedo chamber, because there were no one manning the shield generator, we were taking heavy fire this whole time, and one of the enemy shots punched a straight through our hull just as squad A was approaching the Laser Cannon room, they never stood a chance. The entire squad 6 crew members just got sucked right into the vacuum of space.

Guess it was up to me and my squad to retake the damaged Photon Torpedo Chamber. Luckily for us the Photon Torpedo chamber was deserted, probably because it was on fire. Good thing for us the fire didn't set off the two torpedoes that were sitting in the firing chamber of the launcher. Chief Engineer Allison quickly and efficiently patch the chamber up, and we were able to return fire. Jr. Ensign Huff and I manned the gun while Jr. Ensign Oritz and rookie Lawrence watched the doors.

Ten minutes later we had eliminated the shields of the enemy vessel. Take that Russian Cosmonauts! But our jubilation was premature, because by that time there were at least 30 zombies on board and more teleporting in each minute. Because of our shield being down, every shot from the enemy vessel hit us directly, and one of those oncoming shots hit the Torpedo room, setting the whole place ablaze. Chief Engineer Allison was able to escape the impact and was not hit by the resulting fireball; so he was able to instantly start repairs and quelling the resulting fires. Jr. Ensign Oritz and rookie Lawrence was not so lucky, they were so focused on guarding the doors, they didn't notice the incoming volley and it hit them square in the back. Both of them instantly burst into flames, fortunately our medical officers were at hand to provide first aid. But unknowing to us, the horde was onboard was slowly approaching our position.

As if they somehow planned this, within seconds on the missile impact, we were assaulted by zombies from both doors. Oritz and Lawrence put up a brave defense, keeping them off Jr. Ensign Huff and myself that we managed to get off two more salves of torpedo fire, efficiently destroying the enemy station. But not before they managed to teleport in TWO more squads of zombies. The medical officers had their hands full keeping Lawrence and Oritz in fighting shape but eventually, both of them fell to the relentless horde. But their fight managed to thin down the horde, only 15 or so of the zombies remained, but their attacks were still ferocious, Chief Engineer Allison was the first to fall, having only grabbed his tool kit, he has no weapons with which to defend himself against the zombies. It was down to the medical officers, Ensign Huff (I gave him a field promotion for his outstanding job) and myself. Ensign Huff fell next along with Lt. Burton. It was down to Princess Saark and myself to finish off the last few zombies.

It was the two of us versus 5 more zombies, 3 of which were already in bad shape but so was Princess Saark and myself. The "wounded" three zombies feel easily. But the Princess was so absorbed in healing me, that she neglected her own welfare and fell under the attacks the 4th zombie. I quickly turn on my personal shield and which gave me the time to finish off the remaining two zombies.

At least the battle was finished and I had won, but it was a hollow victory. So many deaths, and the ship was in ruins. Every major command center was on fire, there were multiple hull breaches and out of a crew of 17 only I survived (I just know I am going to get chewed out for the deaths of Princess Saark as well as that of Rookie Lawrence; his father is one of the Admirals of Star Command).